CONDENSED  REPORT 

Trinity's  Tenements 


A   Report  on  the  condition  of  all  resi- 
dence buildings  owned  and  controlled  by 
Trinity  Church,  as  found  on  inspections 
,  from  June  24th  to  October  12th,  1909 


Made  for 

The  Tenement  House  Committee 

of  the 

Charity  Organization  Society  of  the  City  of  New  York 


105  East  22d  Street. 
To  the  Rector,  Churchwardens  and  Vestrymen  of  Trinity  Church. 

I  forward  herewith,  for  your  information,  a  condensed  report 
setting  forth  the  conditions  disclosed  in  the  Trinity  residence 
property  as  a  result  of  the  intensive  investigation  made  by  the 
secretary  of  this  Committee  during  the  summer  and  fall. 

We  shall  be  especially  interested  to  know  what  the  authorities 
of  Trinity  Church  Corporation  purpose  doing  to  improve  this 
class  of  property.  If  there  is  any  way  in  which  we  can  aid  in 
the  development  of  plans  for  its  improvement,  please  consider 
us  at  your  service. 

Yours  sincerely, 

Lawrence  Veiller, 

Director. 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


TRINITY'S  TENEMENTS. 


At  the  request  of  the  Property  Committee  of  Trinity  Church, 
after  consultation  with  Robert  W.  deForest,  president  of  the 
Charity  Organization  Society,  and  former  Tenement  House  Com- 
missioner, an  exhaustive  examination  dealing  with  the  actual  con- 
ditions, structural,  sanitary  and  social,  of  the  tenements  and  other 
residence  buildings  owned  by  Trinity  Church  in  New  York  City, 
has  just  been  completed. 

This  report  covers  the  results  of  the  examination. 

It  refers  to  the  buildings  owned  by  Trinity  Church,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  buildings  not  owned  by  the  Church,  but 
located  on  land  which  is  owned  by  it,  but  leased  on  long  or  short 
terms. 

The  purpose  of  the  investigation  was  to  give  to  the  Trinity 
Vestry  in  a  complete  and  accurate  way  full  information  with 
regard  to  its  houses,  particularly  from  the  point  of  view  of  tene- 
ment law  and  sanitary  regulation.  It  was  understood  by  Mr. 
deForest  that  the  future  policy  of  Trinity  Church — whether  to 
tear  down  some  of  these  houses  and  turn  the  land  to  business  pur- 
poses, or  to  erect  model  tenements  in  their  place,  or  to  alter  them 
over — was  under  consideration.  It  had  been  rumored  that  Trinity 
contemplated  the  abandonment  of  a  large  part  of  its  tenement  and 
dwelling  properties  and  the  devotion  of  the  land  now  occupied 
by  them  to  business  buildings — a  change  of  policy  which  would 
have  worked  great  hardship  to  the  hundreds  of  people  who  for 
years  had  been  its  tenants  and  might  prove  disadvantageous  to 
the  community  from  the  social  point  of  view.  The  Tenement 
House  Committee  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society,  under 
these  circumstances,  undertook  this  investigation,  believing  that 
it  could  serve  the  community  by  aiding  the  owner  of  so  large  a 
number  of  residence  properties  to  decide  whether  to  maintain 
them  as  such  at  a  proper  social  and  sanitary  standard  or  to  give 
them  up  to  other  uses. 

The  investigation  and  report  have  been  made  by  E.  W.  Din- 
widdie,  Secretary  of  the  Tenement  House  Committee  of  the 
New  York  Charity  Organization  Society,  a  former  tenement  house 
inspector  in  the  New  York  City  Tenement  Department,  and  an 
investigator  of  housing  conditions  in  Philadelphia.  The  inspec- 
tions were  made  between  the  end  of  June  and  the  early  part  of 
October,  1909.  The  general  direction  of  the  work  has  been  in 
the  hands  of  Lawrence  V eiller,  the  Director  of  the  Tenement 
House  Committee,  formerly  First  Deputy  Tenement  House  Com- 
missioner of  New  York  City,  and  Secretary  of  the  State  Tenement 
House  Commission. 


No  effort  has  been  spared  to  get  at  the  real  conditions.  The 
search-light  has  been  turned  on  every  phase  of  the  housing 
problem  and  every  bad  condition  found  has  been  disclosed. 

The  investigation  has  concerned  itself  only  with  those  houses 
owned  by  Trinity  Church  and  under  its  control.  It  was  originally 
sought  to  have  it  include  also  the  houses  owned  by  others  and 
located  on  land  owned  by  Trinity,  but  this  effort  had  to  be  aban- 
doned as  it  was  found  that  Trinity  Had  no  control  over  these 
houses  and  the  investigator  was  unable  to  gain  access  to  the 
buildings  for  purposes  of  inspection,  the  owners  refusing  admit- 
tance, insisting  that  as  matter  of  law  Trinity  had  nothing  to  do 
with  their  houses  and  no  right  to  enter  them  or  secure  entrance 
to  others. 

The  results  of  the  investigation  have  been  a  surprise  to  those 
making  it.  The  following  summary  condensed  from  the  indi- 
vidual inspection  reports  gives  the  main  facts  brought  out : 

The  inspection  covered  334  houses,  comprising  810  apart- 
ments, and  included  all  the  houses  owned  by  Trinity  and  used  for 
dwelling  purposes ;  that  is,  as  tenement  buildings,  two-family 
houses,  or  private  houses  with  or  without  shops,  factories  and 
the  like  in  the  same  building. 

Sanitary  Features. 

The  Trinity  houses  are  comparatively  free  from  overcrowding, 
whether  measured  by  density  per  acre,  number  of  persons  to  the 
house  or  number  to  the  room ;  and  in  this  particular  they  pre- 
sent a  marked  contrast  to  the  tenements  and  crowded  dwellings 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood. 

The  tallest  Trinity  dwellings  are  five  stories  high  and  of 
these  there  are  only  five.  The  great  majority  of  the  nouses  are 
but  three  stories  or  three  stories  and  basement  in  height  and 
frequently  the  third  story  is  not  a  full  story,  but  an  attic  with 
a  sloping  roof.  Although  many  of  the  houses  have  very  deep 
yards,  not  a  single  rear  tenement  or  rear  dwelling  house  is  found 
at  the  back  of  a  lot  behind  a  front  building  and  only  in  one  in- 
stance is  anything  resembling  such  a  condition  seen.  This  is 
the  case  of  a  group  of  six  small  houses  built  on  a  court  opening 
from  the  street. 

Light  and  Ventilation. 

"Culture  tube"  air  shafts  to  light  and  ventilate  living  rooms, 
one  of  the  most  objectionable  features  of  the  ordinary  tene- 
ments, are  conspicuously  absent.    Most  of  the  houses  apparently 


I 


3 


were  erected  before  the  period  when  these  were  introduced. 
The  living  rooms  either  open  on  the  street  or  the  yard  or  on 
a  yard  court,  or  have  skylights  in  the  roof,  or  else  get  their  ven- 
tilation from  other  rooms  or  from  the  halls.  An  exception  should 
be  noted,  however,  in  one  of  the  groups  of  houses  built  as  model 
tenements  some  years  ago.  In  this  some  of  the  rooms  have  win- 
dows on  large  box  shafts  roofed  over  at  the  top  with  skylights. 
These  model  tenements  represent  an  advance  over  the  then  pre- 
valent type  of  buildings,  but  are  not  up  to  the  present  day  stand- 
ards. Narrow  yard  spaces  so-called,  less  than  four  feet  deep, 
between  the  rear  of  one  building  and  another  house  and  sup- 
posed to  supply  light  and  air  for  back  rooms  are  also  lacking, 
fortunately  for  the  tenants.  Twenty-two  houses,  including  some 
corner  buildings,  some  buildings  on  irregular  shaped  lots  and 
some  in  which  a  first-story  shop  runs  far  back  have  no  yards, 
but  deep  yard  spaces  as  a  rule  are  characteristic  of  the  Trinity 
properties. 

Of  all  the  rooms  89%  are  outside  rooms  opening  by  windows 
or  in  a  few  exceptional  cases  by  skylights,  directly  to  the  outer 
air.  The  remaining  11%  are  interior  rooms,  in  a  few  instances 
having  windows  to  box  shafts,  but  usually  getting  light  and  air 
from  doors  or  doors  and  windows  to  other  rooms  or  to  halls. 
Four-fifths  of  the  interior  rooms  are  in  apartments  extend- 
ing all  the  way  from  the  street  to  the  yard,  and  thus  having  a 
through  current  of  air.  In  one  house  containing  such  rooms  and 
having  through  ventilation  for  each  apartment  the  tenant's  com- 
ment to  the  investigator  was  "The  big  windows  are  grand.  You 
open  them  at  night  and  you  get  a  breeze;  it  is  a  regular  Coney 
Island."  Of  ah1  the  interior  rooms  about  one-third  were  found  to 
be  insufficiently  ventilated  and  lighted  as  then  arranged  and  occu- 
pied. Only  three  occupied  "third  interior"  rooms,  such  as  exist  in 
great  numbers  in  the  ordinary  tenements  of  New  York  were 
found  ;  that  is,  interior  rooms  separated  from  the  outside  air  by 
two  intervening  rooms.  All  of  these  had  large  windows  to  ad- 
joining rooms. 

The  importance  of  light  halls  increases  with  the  number  of 
families  and  persons  using  them.  In  the  Trinity  properties,  even 
in  the  small  houses,  the  great  majority  of  the  halls  were  well 
lighted  and  ventilated.  Many  had  outside  windows  and  sky- 
lights.   Dark  halls  in  any  of  the  houses  were  wholly  exceptional. 

Basement  Living  Rooms. 

In  42%  of  the  houses,  basement  rooms  partly  below  the  level 
of  the  ground  were  used  for  living  purposes.    Altogether  there 


4 


were  257  such  rooms,  of  which,  however,  only  51  were  used  for 
sleeping  rooms.  Most  of  the  basement  rooms  were  not  objec- 
tionable, being  light,  well  ventilated  and  apparently  dry  and  used 
as  kitchens,  dining  rooms,  or  laundry  rooms  by  families  having 
bedrooms  on  the  upper  floors.  This  was  the  ordinary  type  of 
Trinity  house  with  basement  rooms  classed  as  habitable.  Usually 
there  was  no  cellar  under  the  basement  rooms,  but  there  was 
frequently  a  small  air  space  between  the  floor  and  the  ground. 
The  living  room  floors  were  all  of  wood.  Rooms  such  as  those 
described  above  are  very  much  better  than  the  ordinary  basement 
living  rooms  found  in  the  older  tenement  houses  throughout 
the  city. 

In  a  small  minority  of  the  cases  the  basement  apartments  in 
Trinity's  houses  were  of  a  less  sanitary  type  than  that  mentioned 
above.    Fifteen  of  the  basement  rooms  were  unsanitary. 

In  22  houses  in  all  there  were  entire  apartments  in  the  base- 
ment stories.  Most  of  these,  however,  were  dry,  well  lighted 
and  ventilated  and  not  unhealthful. 


Cellar  Conditions. 

The  absence  of  concrete  floors  in  cellars  is  a  very  common 
condition  in  old  small  houses  everywhere.  Even  an  earth-floored 
cellar  cannot  be  said  to  constitute  an  unsanitary  condition  if  it 
is  properly  ventilated  and  free  from  dampness,  and  if  too  free 
communication  with  the  floors  above  is  avoided  or  if  the  story 
above  is  used  only  for  business  purposes.  A  few  instances  of 
damp  unhealthful  cellars  exist  in  the  Trinity  properties,  usually 
with  doors  only  and  these  kept  closed. 

Although,  as  a  rule,  not  wholly  light,  except  where  used  for 
living  purposes,  most  of  the  cellars  had  means  of  lighting  and 
ventilation  by  windows,  area  gratings  or  the  like,  in  addition  to 
the  ordinary  door  openings. 

Over  three-fourths  of  the  cellars  were  dry  or  fairly  dry.  This 
does  not  mean  water  tight  and  damp-proof,  but  in  as  dry  a  con- 
dition as  their  type  of  flooring  permits.  Forty-seven  cellars  were 
perceptibly  damp  in  whole  or  in  part  from  a  variety  of  causes. 
Only  four  of  the  334  houses  had  any  accumulation  of  stagnant 
water  on  the  cellar  floor.  In  all  the  cases  this  was  evidently  a 
recent  condition  and  in  one  instance  it  was  reported  to  be  the 
result  of  some  repair  work  just  completed.  Two  more  cellars 
were  partly  wet. 

The  majority  of  the  cellars  were  clean  or  fairly  clean.  Forty- 
three  cellars  (13%  of  the  total)  were  dirty  because  of  accumu- 


5 


Iations  of  rubbish  or  of  the  condition  of  floors,  walls  or  ceil- 
ings ;  other  cellars  had  the  ceiling  and  walls  covered  with  dust, 
apparently  the  accumulations  of  several  years,  and  festooned 
with  heavy  cobwebs.   Three  cellars  were  noted  as  partly  dirty. 

House  Drains. 

House  drains  could  be  inspected  in  comparatively  few  cases. 
There  were  a  few  instances  in  which  workmen  were  found  dig- 
ging up  the  pipes,  where  earthenware  drains  were  disclosed.  Old 
drains  of  this  type  are  frequently  broken.  It  would  not  be  pos- 
sible to  find  out  how  many  Trinity  properties  there  are  with  such 
class  of  drains  without  digging  them  up.  Such  drains  as  were 
above  the  floor  level  and  open  to  inspection  were  of  iron,  and  in 
the  majority  of  cases  in  good  or  fair  condition.  Obstructed  house 
drains  were  not  found  in  any  of  the  buildings. 


Cleanliness  of  Rooms,  Halls  and  Stairs. 

In  62%  of  the  houses  the  walls  and  ceilings  of  the  living 
rooms  were  clean  or  fairly  clean.  In  the  remaining  38%  of  the 
buildings  some,  or  in'  a  few  cases  all,  of  the  living  rooms  had 
more  or  less  dirty  walls  and  ceilings.  Actually  filthy  walls  and 
ceilings  were  rare,  although  a  very  small  number  were  found. 

In  over  two-thirds  of  the  buildings  the  walls  and  ceilings  of 
the  halls  and  stairs  were  clean  or  fairly  clean.  In  the  remainder 
the  hall  walls  and  ceilings  on  some  or  all  of  the  floors  were  dirty 
enough  to  need  renovating.  Actual  filthy  conditions  of  walls 
and  ceilings  were  seen  in  only  two  or  three  instances. 

Sanitary  Accommodations. 

In  regard  to  foul  "school  sinks"  (sewer-connected  privies), 
which  were  an  undesirable  feature  in  many  of  the  older  houses 
of  the  city,  the  situation  of  the  Trinity  property  may  be  fairly 
summed  up  in  three  words :  there  are  none.  Nor  was  there  any 
evidence  of  the  recent  removal  of  such  appliances. 

There  were  639  water  closets  provided  for  the  334  houses. 
Forty-two  per  cent,  of  the  families  in  the  houses  had  separate 
accommodations,  the  use  of  which  was  not  shared  with  other 
tenants.  The  few  cases  where  one  closet  was  used  by  more  than 
two  families  were  almost  solely  in  the  tenements.  Sixty  per 
cent,  of  the  closets  for  all  the  houses  were  outside  the  buildings. 


6 


The  outside  closets  were  necessarily  of  the  long  hopper  type. 
The  present  plumbing  regulations  forbid  the  installation  of  this 
type  within  the  houses ;  but  the  Octavia  Hill  Association  in  Phila- 
delphia, in  its  model  cottages,  which  are  small  houses  on  the  order 
of  the  Trinity  properties,  makes  a  practice  of  installing  long 
hopper  closets  in  the  yard.  Of  the  closets  within  the  houses  97 
are  of  this  type. 

Eighty-six  per  cent  of  all  the  closets  were  clean  or  fairly 
clean  and  14%  dirty  or  somewhat  foul.  The  extremely  foul 
conditions  sometimes  seen  in  the  poorer  houses  in  New  York 
were  not  found  in  the  Trinity  properties. 


Water  Supply. 

All  but  five  of  the  houses  had  water  supply  within  the  build- 
ing. Almost  invariably  there  was  water  on  every  occupied 
floor,  or  on  every  floor  except  the  attic  or  parlor  floor.  This 
was  true  of  the  one  and  two-family  houses  as  well  as  the 
tenements. 

Eighty-five  per  cent  of  the  families  had  separate  water 
supply.  The  remaining  families  used  sinks  or  basins  in  common 
with  other  families.  One  hundred  and  twelve  houses  had  fixed 
laundry  tubs  and  67  were  provided  with  baths.  The  laundry 
tubs  were  usually  of  wood  lined  with  sheet  metal  or  of  soap- 
stone  but  a  few  unlined  wooden  tubs  were  found.  The  baths 
were  of  various  types ;  some  were  open  porcelain  tubs ;  some  open 
enamelled  iron,  and  some  of  metal  enclosed  in  wood.  A  very  few 
sewer  connected  sinks,  basins  and  baths  were  found  not  to  be 
trapped.  No  instances  of  wholly  inadequate  water  supply  for 
sinks  and  basins  were  seen,  but  in  a  number  of  cases  there  was 
not  a  strong  flow.  Very  frequently  water  would  not  run  on 
an  upper  floor  when  it  was  being  drawn  on  a  lower  floor  or  in 
the  yard. 


Yards,  Courts  and  Areas. 

Yards  paved  with  concrete  were  very  rare,  though  a  small 
number  were  seen  in  the  Trinity  properties.  The  great  majority 
were  paved  with  brick  or  flag  or  had  merely  an  earth  surface 
or  else  some  combination  of  these  materials.  Small  flower 
gardens  and  brick  walks  were  common  and  made  the  back  yards 
very  attractive.     The  areas  were  usually  paved  with  brick 


7 


although  some  were  of  concrete.  In  23%  of  the  houses  the 
paving  of  the  yards,  courts  and  areas  was  more  or  less  de- 
fective, meaning  that  the  surfaces  were  broken  or  irregular,  in- 
terfering with  proper  drainage.  In  18%  they  were  not  properly 
graded.  In  24  cases  the  unoccupied  spaces  were  dirty.  In  33 
cases  they  had  some  accumulations  of  rubbish.  The  remainder 
were  clean  and  well  kept. 

Rain  Pipes. 

The  majority  of  the  rain  leaders  in  front  and  rear  were 
sewer-connected  or  discharged  into  gutters  leading  directly  into 
sewer-connected  drains  and  were  in  good  or  fair  condition,  but 
in  a  few  cases  the  pipes  were  broken  or  leaking,  pouring  out 
streams  of  water  over  imperfectly  drained  sections  of  the  yard. 

Garbage  Disposal. 

The  Trinity  residence  properties  were  remarkably  free  from 
unsanitary  conditions  resulting  from  carelessness  in  the  disposal 
of  garbage.  In  two  cases  garbage  from  restaurants  was  allowed 
to  become  offensive. 

Unsanitary  Places  of  Business. 

One  hundred  and  seventy-five  houses  (about  one-half  of  the 
total  number)  contained  one  or  more  shops  or  other  places  of 
business.  In  only  two  cases  were  these  of  such  a  character  or 
in  such  a  state  as  to  make  an  unhealthful  condition.  One  of 
these  was  a  stable  and  mineral  water  storage  room  on  the  first 
floor  of  a  house  where  one  family  occupied  the  upper  floors. 
This  was  the  only  instance  in  a  Trinity-owned  house  inspected 
of  a  stable  in  the  same  building  or  on  the  same  lot  with  a 
residence. 

There  were  no  rag  shops,  junk  shops  or  second-hand  clothing 
shops  in  the  houses  and  no  saloons  or  gambling  places.  Nor 
were  there  any  houses  of  prostitution. 

Keeping  of  Animals. 

Apart  from  the  cases  of  the  one  stable  previously  described 
and  one  bird  and  animal  shop,  no  animals  excepts  dogs,  cats, 


8 


canary  birds  and  parrots  were  found  on  the  premises,  except 
in  ten  instances  where  chickens  were  kept  and  three  where 
pigeons  were  found.  The  pigeons  were  a  nuisance ;  the  chickens, 
on  the  other  hand,  were  out  of  doors  and,  as  kept  in  the  Trinity 
properties,  in  deep  yards,  were  not  a  nuisance  except  in  one  case 
where  the  yard  was  not  properly  cleaned  and  the  chickens  were 
allowed  to  enter  the  cellar  kitchen. 

Structural  Conditions  and  Fire  Danger. 

There  were  only  three  frame  houses  but  there  were  158  partly 
brick  and  partly  frame.  The  remaining  173  had  the  outer 
construction  of  brick  with  the  exception  only  of  small  wooden 
stoops,  porches  or  galleries.  Twenty-six  of  the  buildings  did  not 
strictly  conform  to  the  law  in  regard  to  fire  escapes.  This  was 
largely  owing  to  the  fact  that  tenants  had  sublet  apartments  to 
more  families  than  the  buildings  were  equipped  for.  But  while 
there  is  possibility  of  fire  in  the  Trinity  houses,  the  danger  is  less 
than  in  many  hundreds  of  the  old  tenement  houses  in,  for  example, 
closely  built-up  sections  of  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn. 

No  instances  of  keeping  on  the  premises  large  quantities  of 
feed,  hay,  straw,  paper  stock  or  rags  were  seen  except  in  the  one 
case  of  the  stable  mentioned  above  and  two  cases  of  paper  stock 
kept  in  cellars  of  small  houses.  There  was  only  one  bakery  in 
any  of  the  houses.  This  was  in  a  three-story,  two- family  brick 
building.  The  oven  was  in  the  rear  of  the  cellar.  The  ceiling 
directly  above  was  sheathed  with  metal. 

1/   

It  should  be  noted,  moreover,  that  the  typical  Trinity  tenement 
is  very  different  from  the  ordinary  dumb-bell  tenement  commonly 
seen  in  the  Borough  of  Manhattan.  The  so-called  tenement 
houses  belonging-  to  the  church  are  usually  small  buildings  divided 
up  for  three  or  four  families. 

Repair. 

Of  the  334  buildings,  fifty-four  had  leaks  in  the  roofs.  These 
were  either  very  small,  frequently  barely  enough  to  make  a  stain 
on  the  ceiling,  or  else,  as  in  the  three  cases  of  bad  leaks,  were  of 
recent  origin. 

The  outer  walls  of  the  houses  were  defective  in  nineteen 
cases.  This  means  that  they  had  such  obvious  and  usually 
small  defects  as  broken  boarding,  loose  bricks  or  cracks  in  brick 
work  or  torn  metal  sheathing. 

The  plastered  walls  and  ceilings  of  the  room  in  278  of  the 
houses  were  in  good  or  fair  condition  throughout.    In  the  re- 


PIGEONS. 

PIGEONS  WERE  KEPT  IN  THKEE  HOUSES. 


THIS   WAS  THE  WOItST. 


I 


9 


maining  fifty-six  buildings  only,  the  walls  of  one  or  more  rooms 
in  each  were  more  or  less  broken,  loose  or  badly  cracked. 

In  ten  buildings  the  plaster  of  the  hall  walls  and  ceilings  was 
somewhat  defective  on  all  floors ;  in  twenty-four  more  it  was 
defective  on  some  floors ;  in  the  three  hundred  other  houses  the 
walls  and  ceilings  of  the  halls  were  in  good  or  fair  repair  through- 
out. 

The  Tenants. 

Thirty-eight  per  cent  of  the  houses  were  occupied  by  a  single 
family  in  each;  31%  were  occupied  by  two  families  each  and 
31%  by  as  many  as  three  families  each.  The  average  number  of 
families  to  a  house  was  2.3,  which  is  less  than  half  the  average 
number  of  families  to  a  residence  house  in  the  Borough 
of  Manhattan  as  shown  by  the  census  figures  of  1900; 
it  is  less  even  than  the  avera.ee  for  the  whole  city 
of  New  York,  including  Brooklyn  and  The  Bronx  and  Queens  and 
Richmond  with  their  large,  open  semi-rural  areas.  In 
but  one  instance  was  there  found  any  considerable  num- 
ber of  families  living  in  a  single  house.  This  was  the 
case  of  a  large  building  with  eighty-two  rooms  occupied  by 
twenty-one  families,  built  many  years  ago  as  a  model  tenement. 
It  is  the  largest  of  a  group  around  a  central  open  space  some- 
what after  the  order  of  the  Riverside  Model  Tenements  in 
Brooklyn.  The  next  largest  number  of  families  in  one  house  is 
ten.  There  were  only  five  houses  in  which  this  number  was 
found  and  four  of  these  were  built  as  model  tenements. 

Comparing  the  number  of  persons  to  a  house  instead  of  the 
number  of  families  shows  a  similar  difference  in  favor  of  the 
Trinity  properties.  Thus,  in  the  Boroughs  of  Manhattan  and 
the  Bronx  in  1900,  but  49.2%  of  the  houses  used  wholly  or  partly 
for  residence  purposes  were  occupied  by  from  1  to  10  persons, 
in  the  Trinity  properties  62%  by  this  number  of  persons;  in 
Manhattan  and  the  Bronx  11.7%  by  from  11  to  15  persons,  in 
the  Trinity  houses  26%;  in  Manhattan  and  the  Bronx  7.1%  by 
from  16  to  20  persons,  in  the  Trinity  buildings  7%  ;  in  Manhat- 
tan and  the  Bronx  32%  by  21  persons  or  more,  as  contrasted 
with  only  5%  in  the  Trinity  properties.  The  average  number 
of  persons  to  a  house  in  the  Trinity  residence  buildings  is  be- 
tween ten  and  eleven. 

In  addition,  it  must  be  remembered,  that  the  figures  used  for 
comparison  with  the  statistics  of  the  Trinity  houses  are  taken 
from  the  census  of  1900  and  that  overcrowding  in  the  city  at 
large  has  unquestionably  increased  since  that  time.    If  statistics 


10 


for  New  York  City  for  the  present  year  could  be  had,  the  contrast 
between  Trinity  nouses  and  the  general  conditions  would  un- 
doubtedly be  still  greater  in  favor  of  the  Trinity  properties.  A 
more  effective  realization  of  conditions  may  be  had  by  walking 
through  the  streets  on  which  are  a  number  of  the  Trinity  dwell- 
ing houses  and  then  walking  through  the  next  streets  beyond, 
also  residence  streets  but  on  which  the  houses  are  not  owned 
by  Trinity. 

Overcrowding  Within  the  Rooms. 

Of  all  of  the  788  families  (a  family  meaning  any  aggregate 
of  persons  keeping  house  together  and  their  lodgers),  46  have 
one  room  each ;  but  of  these  families  living  in  one  room  26  con- 
sist of  only  one  person  each;  14  of  two  persons  each;  4  of  three 
persons  each ;  1  of  four  persons,  and  one  of  six  persons.  The 
six  persons  found  living  in  a  one-room  apartment  consisted  of  a 
husband  and  wife  and  four  small  children.  The  one  room  occu- 
pied the  entire  first  story  of  the  house  with  the  exception  of  the 
space  taken  up  by  the  hall  and  was  intended  as  a  shop.  A  cur- 
tain was  stretched  across  the  front  part  of  the  room  and  at  night 
both  parts  served  as  bedrooms.  Light  and  ventilation  were 
good.  There  were  large  windows  at  the  rear  to  the  yard  and  at 
the  front  to  the  street.  The  conditions  were  neither  unsanitary 
nor  indecent  as  far  as  the  tenants  were  concerned.  One  fact  fre- 
quently commented  on  by  the  tenants  is  the  difference  between 
the  size  of  the  rooms  and  of  the  yards  into  which  the  rear  rooms 
open  in  the  Trinity  buildings  and  in  the  neighboring  "flats." 

Roughly  classifying  the  occupied  apartments  as  to  presence 
or  absence  of  overcrowding,  the  result  is  as  follows :  Good — 647 
apartments;  Fair — 106  apartments;  Somewhat  overcrowded — 31 
apartments  ;  overcrowded — 4  apartments. 

Although  even  in  the  Trinity  houses  freedom  from  over- 
crowding is  seen  not  to  be  universal,  yet  the  fact  that  39%  of 
the  families  have  more  than  one  room  to  each  person,  frequently 
considerably  more,  is  a  remarkable  showing  for  a  district  lying 
below  14th  street.  Even  more  surprising  is  the  fact  that  the 
average  number  of  persons  to  a  room  for  all  the  families  is  less 
than  one.  Moreover,  the  lodger  evil,  which  in  the  tenements 
of  New  York  City  makes  the  overcrowding  situation  far  more 
serious  from  the  point  of  view  of  sanitation  and  decency,  is  not 
a  very  important  factor  in  the  Trinity  properties.  Eighty-two 
per  cent  of  all  the  families  had  no  lodgers.  No  instances  were 
discovered  in  which  lodgers  shared  the  sleeping  rooms  of  mem- 
bers of  the  family.    They  had  separate  bedrooms  not  interfering 


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1 1 


with  the  privacy  of  the  home  life.  Ordinary  examples  of  fam- 
ilies with  lodgers  were  as  follows:  A  family  of  four  had  seven 
rooms ;  two  were  rented  out  furnished ;  the  remaining  five  were 
reserved  for  their  own  use.  Another  family  had  the  whole 
house  containing  eleven  rooms  and  rented  out  three  rooms  to 
three  lodgers.  A  total  of  428  lodgers  were  taken  by  143  fami- 
lies, making  an  average  of  three  lodgers  to  each  family  taking 
lodgers. 

Over  one-half  of  the  788  families  occupying  the  houses  were 
native  Americans,  classed  according  to  the  birth  place  of  the 
head  of  the  family.  In  the  next  largest  group,  23%  of  the 
whole,  the  head  of  the  family  was  of  Irish  birth ;  the  Germans 
were  next  with  8%,  and  the  Italians  next  with  4%.  The  re- 
mainder were  distributed  among  a  number  of  nationalities.  One 
colored  tenant  was  found.  There  were  no  Chinese  or  Japanese 
occupying  apartments.  Twenty-four  families  were  reported  to 
be  Jewish.  Not  only  were  the  heads  of  the  families  mainly 
native  Americans,  but  a  large  proportion  were  native  New 
Yorkers. 

The  saying  that  a  New  York  family  on  an  average  moves 
once  a  year  does  not  apply  to  the  Trinity  tenants.  Many  have 
been  living  in  the  same  houses  for  over  ten  years ;  a  few  for  over 
forty  years  and  three  for  over  fifty  years.  While  51%  of  all  the 
families  have  occupied  the  same  houses  for  five  or  more  years, 
the  tenants  who  have  moved  into  the  houses  where  they  are  now 
living  within  a  year  form  only  18%  of  the  total.  It  should  also 
be  noted  that  a  very  considerable  proportion  of  the  tenants  who 
have  moved  into  their  present  houses  within  the  past  few  years 
report  that  they  were  formerly  in  other  buildings  owned  by  the 
church,  so  that  their  tenancy  in  Trinity  buildings  is  for  a 
considerably  longer  period  than  in  the  buildings  at  present  oc- 
cupied. 

Whether  the  result  of  contentment  or  of  apathy,  the  length  of 
residence  common  among  the  tenants  does  not  indicate  active 
dissatisfaction.  In  visiting  the  houses  it  is  interesting  to  note 
that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  tenants  volunteer  the  ex- 
pression of  cordial  liking  for  Trinity  and  its  representatives. 
Comments  are  constantly  made  on  the  contrast  between  the  ac- 
commodations offered  for  a  given  rent  in  the  Trinity-owned  resi- 
dences and  elsewhere,  and  many  tenants  speak  of  kindness  in 
not  pressing  for  rent  in  times  of  special  embarrassment.  Active 
resentment  is  expressed  at  the  attacks  made  on  Trinity  which 
have  come  to  the  notice  of  the  occupants  of  the  houses. 

The  character  of  the  tenants  is  shown  to  some  extent  by  the 
occupations  followed  by  the  heads  of  the  families.     They  cover 


12 


a  wide  range.  At  one  end  are  clerks  of  court,  law  clerks,  doctors 
in  good  practice,  business  men  with  down-town  offices,  and  so  on. 
At  the  other  end  are  day-laborers,  charwomen  and  the  like. 
Truck  drivers  form  the  largest  group ;  shopkeepers  are  another 
large  class ;  clerks  another  and  'longshore  and  dock  laborers 
are  next. 

No  evidences  of  gambling  or  immorality  in  the  houses  were 
brought  out  in  the  investigation,  except  in  one  case  where  the 
tenants  of  an  upper  story  reported  that  on  a  lower  story  was  a 
woman  of  disreputable  character.  On  a  second  visit  to  the 
house  made  a  short  time  later,  the  apartment  complained  of  was 
found  vacated,  the  matter  having  been  brought  on  the  first 
visit  to  the  notice  of  a  representative  of  Trinity  and  apparently 
acted  upon  at  once.  No  other  complaints  of  this  character  in 
regard  to  the  Trinity  houses  were  made  to  the  investigator,  al- 
though respectable  tenants  are  usually  quick  to  report  the  exis- 
tence of  immorality  in  the  houses  in  which  they  live  or  in  those 
next  door  to  them. 

In  175  houses  there  were  shops  or  other  places  of  business. 
In  all  there  were  211  such  places.  In  a  few  cases  there  were 
two  shops  side  by  side  on  the  first  story.  In  one  there  were 
shops  on  both  the  first  and  second  stories.  Dressmakers  and 
tailor  shops  were  found  in  the  largest  number ;  there  were  thirteen 
of  these.  Next  were  the  groceries,  of  which  there  were  eleven. 
There  were  also  nine  candy  or  candy  and  stationery  shops ;  nine 
cigar  shops  or  cigar  and  stationery  shops ;  nine  restaurants ;  eight 
barber  shops,  etc.,  etc.  The  remaining  places  of  business  were 
of  great  variety.  One  Jewish  synagogue  was  on  the  top  story 
of  a  building  used  mainly  for  business  purposes  but  containing 
one  apartment.    There  were  no  saloons  in  any  of  the  buildings. 


Rents. 

No  one  feature  of  the  houses  is  more  commented  on  by  the 
tenants  than  the  unchanging  low  rentals ;  that  is,  low  according 
to  Manhattan  standards.  There  is  undoubtedly  a  close  relation 
between  these  and  the  comparative  freedom  from  crowding  in 
the  buildings. 

A  detailed  list  of  the  rents  charged  in  311  buildings  was 
furnished  by  the  Trinity  office,  together  with  a  statement  of  the 
number  of  rooms  in  each  apartment,  the  number  of  apartments 
occupied  by  janitors  or  housekeepers,  who  usually  have  reduced 
rents,  and  the  number  of  shops  in  the  buildings.  In  the  rent  list 
the  nouses  were  divided  into  three  groups, — forty-seven  small 


KITCHEN  IN  WORST  HOUSE. 


FOURTEEN    SOUSES    WERE    IN    BAD   CONDITION.      THIS    WAS    THE  WOKST. 
NOTE  LOW   CEILING  AND  I'NCLEANLI  NF.SS. 


*3 


tenement  houses  rented  directly  by  Trinity ;  forty-seven  small  tene- 
ment houses  rented  to  tenants  who  sublet;  and  217  private  houses. 

This  list  was  used  as  the  basis  for  computing  average  rentals, 
which  were  found  to  be  as  follows :  In  the  small  tenement  houses 
rented  directly  by  Trinity  Church  to  the  different  ten- 
ants, excluding  apartments  rented  with  shops  and  apartments 
occupied  by  janitors  or  housekeepers,  and  counting  only  separate 
residence  apartments  not  let  on  reduced  terms  in  return  for 
services,  the  average  monthly  rent  per  apartment  for  205  fami- 
lies was  $15.84,  being  an  average  monthly  rent  per  room  of  $4.24. 
The  average  monthly  rental  per  house  for  forty-seven  houses  in 
this  class  is  $89.71,  including  rents  from  shops  in  the  buildings. 

In  the  small  tenement  houses  rented  by  tenants  who  sublet,  the 
average  monthly  rental  per  house  is  $49.49.  In  the  private 
houses  in  the  list  of  this  class,  including  some  one-family  and 
some  two-family  houses,  the  average  monthly  rent  per  house  in 
the  buildings  without  shops  is  $46.49,  in  the  buildings  with 
shops  $51.90.  The  average  rent  per  room  in  the  private  houses 
without  shops  is  $4.50  per  month. 

The  tenants  state  that  these  rents  are  much  lower  for  the 
same  class  of  accommodations  than  are  to  be  had  elsewhere  near 
the  business  district  of  the  city. 

Summary  and  Conclusions. 

In  the  report  it  has  been  sought  to  show  clearly  the  existing 
condition  of  the  Trinity  properties,  including  their  defects  and 
their  good  qualities.  According  to  the  conditions  disclosed  in 
the  investigation,  the  houses  may  be  grouped, into  three  classes. 

The  first  includes  buildings  in  good  condition  throughout  or 
with  only  minor  defects,  such  as  small  leaks  in  the  roof,  barely 
enough  to  stain  the  ceiling,  defects  in  outside  rain  pipes,  one  or 
two  rooms  the  walls  of  which  need  repapering  or  repainting. 
Most  of  the  houses — that  is  208  buildings,  being  62%  of  the 
whole  number  examined — belong  to  this  class. 

The  second  class  includes  buildings  with  some  or  many  de- 
fects, ranging  from  houses  almost  in  the  first  class  to  houses 
almost  in  the  third  class.  In  this  class  there  are  112  houses  or 
34%  of  the  whole. 

The  third  class  includes  houses  in  bad  condition.  This  class 
includes  14*  houses,  being  4%  of  the  whole. 

The  impression  made  by  the  painstaking  house-to-house  study 
of  the  buildings  is  that  the  houses  in  good  condition  throughout 
(forming  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  total)  are  of  very  great  value 


♦Of  these  one  has  since  been  demolished,  one  has  been  vacated  and  im- 
provements have  been  made  in  others. 


14 

to  the  community.  They  give  at  low  rents  quiet,  comfortable, 
private  living  quarters,  free  from  overcrowding,  in  the  heart  of 
the  city  and  within  walking  distance  of  the  business  district. 
The  cheaper  houses  compare  very  favorably  with  the  model  cot- 
tages conducted  in  Philadelphia  by  the  Octavia  Hill  Associa- 
tion, for  tenants  of  very  limited  means  who  are  obliged  to  live 
in  the  city  near  their  work.  The  more  expensive  buildings  give 
still  better  accommodations  with  additional  comforts  and  small 
luxuries. 

There  are  defects  in  about  one-third  of  the  houses,  which 
need  improvement  and  cause  criticism  to  be  made  of  the  owner; 
but  on  the  other  hand  they  are  on  the  average  in  the  class  with 
buildings  of  the  vicinity  and  f  requently  are  much  better.  If  they 
were  torn  down  the  probable  result  would  be  that  the  tenants 
would  move  into  other  houses  in  the  same  neighborhood,  to  which 
they  are  closely  bound  by  business,  political,  church  and  other 
affiliations,  and  in  these  they  would  be  more  over-crowded,  and 
would  pay  higher  rents  for  accommodations  probably  not  so  good. 

In  the  twelve  houses  now  reported  in  bad  condition  the  defects 
are  largely  defects  of  maintenance.  Walls  and  ceilings  are  dirty, 
plaster  is  broken,  plumbing  fixtures  are  foul  and  in  poor  repair. 
There  are  some  unlighted  interior  rooms  also,  but  the  greater 
number  of  defects  are  not  inherent  structural  defects  and  the 
responsibility  for  them  cannot  always  be  definitely  fixed. 

It  would  seem  very  desirable,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
tenants,  that  Trinity  should  improve  the  buildings  needing  im- 
provement, and  continue  to  maintain  as  residences  the  houses  of 
all  the  grades  with  the  exception  of  a  very  few  old  frame,  or 
largely  frame,  buildings  in  poor  condition  and  obviously  not 
worth  repair.  The  destruction  of  all  the  houses,  followed  by 
their  replacement  by  business  buildings,  would  displace  a  popu- 
lation of  several  thousand  persons,  driving  them  probably  into 
inferior  quarters  at  higher  rents  and  increasing  overcrowding.  If 
some  of  the  buildings  must  be  destroyed,  however — from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  tenants  still — it  would  seem  desirable  to  replace 
them  by  model  tenements.  These  would  be  sanitary,  safe  homes 
with  certain  additional  conveniences,  although  without  many  of 
the  most  prized  advantages  of  the  existing  houses,  such  as  large 
rooms,  individual  use  of  halls  and  yards,  few  steps  to  climb  from 
the  street,  freedom  from  crowding  and  consequent  dirt  in  the 
streets ;  play-space  for  children  and  reasonable  quiet  even  with 
the  windows  open,  which,  where  there  are  families  with  children 
is  difficult  to  secure  even  in  many  of  the  model  tenements  with 
bedrooms  on  inner  courts,  where  one  crying  baby  keeps  all  the 
families  on  the  court  awake  on  a  summer  night  and  makes  a 
strong  inducement  to  keep  the  windows  closed  in  winter. 


i5 


In  addition,  more  careful  selection  and  supervision  of  the 
tenants  in  some  of  the  houses,  if  possible,  is  needed.  Neater 
and  more  orderly  tenants  could  scarcely  be  found  than  those 
in  many  of  the  better  class  of  buildings.  But  this  cannot  be 
said  of  the  occupants  of  all  the  houses.  Some  need  to  be 
required  to  maintain  a  decidedly  better  standard  of  cleanliness 
if  they  are  to  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  buildings.  A  gen- 
eral system  of  direct  renting  to  all  tenants,  doing  away  with 
the  present  arrangement  found  in  some  cases  of  tenants'  sub- 
letting parts  of  the  buildings  to  others  without  the  church  office's 
even  knowing  of  it,  would  probably  do  much  to  remedy  the 
existing  situation  in  this  respect. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  sensationally  bad  conditions 
were  not  found  in  the  tenements  and  smaller  dwelling  houses 
owned  and  controlled  by  Trinity  Church.  A  very  considerable 
majority  are  in  good  condition;  a  minority  have  defects,  and  a 
very  few  are  in  bad  condition. 

It  seems  probable,  however,  that  the  residence  houses  on 
leased  Trinity  ground — numbering  between  two  and  three  hun- 
dred— over  which  Trinity  has  no  control,  are,  like  many  other 
tenements  throughout  the  city,  often  in  very  bad  condition.  This 
is  especially  probable  in  the  case  of  the  houses  on  land  held  under 
leases  which  will  soon  end,  where  the  owners  do  not  wish  to  make 
repairs  and  improvements  in  buildings  which  will  soon  pass  out  of 
their  hands.  Until  all  the  houses  on  Trinity's  land  are  kept  in 
good  condition,  they  will  always  be  made  a  ground  of  reproach  to 
the  church. 


STATEMENT  FROM  TRINITY. 

Lawrence  Veiller,  Esq., 

Director  Tenement  House  Committee, 
Charity  Organization  Society, 
105  East  22nd  Street, 
New  York  City. 

Dear  Sir: — 

I  have  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  from  you  of  the  report 
of  the  inspection  made  at  our  request  by  the  Charity  Organiza- 
tion Society,  through  its  Tenement  House  Committee,  of  the 
residence  houses  owned  by  the  Corporation  of  Trinity  Church. 

I  am  instructed  by  the  Vestry  to  write  you  this  note  of  thanks 
and  to  express  their  appreciation  of  the  completeness  ard  thor- 
oughness with  which  the  work  has  been  done. 


i6 


With  reference  to  the  management  of  the  property,  I  beg  to 
call  your  attention  to  the  statement  of  the  intentions  of  the 
Vestry  in  regard  to  this  property  contained  in  a  sermon  preached 
by  our  Rector,  Dr.  Manning,  at  Trinity  Church  on  the  18th  day 
of  April,  last. 

He  then  said,  alluding  to  the  difficulties  inherent  in  the  sub- 
ject, as  follows : 

"Whatever  the  difficulties,  however,  I  say  unhesitatingly 
that,  as  property  owners,  our  responsibility  for  the  condi- 
tion of  any  dwelling  house  property  owned  by  the  Parish  is 
the  most  vital  and  fundamental,  and  one  of  the  most  sacred 
of  all  the  obligations  resting  upon  us,  and  that  we  are  bound 
to  do  everything  in  our  power  to  meet  this  responsibility. 
The  long  leases  under  which  much  of  the  property  has  been 
held  have  many  of  them  expired,  and  we  are  able  now  to 
deal  with  this  property  in  a  way  which,  some  time  ago, 
would  not  have  been  possible. 

Since  becoming  rector  I  have  given  a  great  deal  of  time 
and  thought  and  work  to  this  question.  In  company  with 
members  of  the  Vestry  I  have  visited  many  of  the  houses 
on  our  property.  Plans  long  in  hand  have  been  carried 
forward,  new  plans  of  far-reaching  importance  have  been 
formed,  and  work  upon  some  of  them  is  already  under  way. 
I  hold  that  in  this  matter  we  ought  to  set  not  only  a  high 
standard,  but  the  very  highest.  Far  better,  if  necessary, 
that  all  our  charities  should  be  given  up  and  all  our  churches 
and  schools  closed  than  that  we  should  maintain  any  of 
them  by  revenue  derived  from  property  in  an  unsanitary  or 
questionable  condition. 

In  discussing  this  subject  I  have  used  the  word  Parish 
instead  of  Corporation.  I  have  done  this  purposely,  because 
so  far  as  our  responsibility  is  concerned,  there  can  be  no 
distinction  between  these  two.  Trinity  Parish  is  a  relig- 
ious institution,  not  a  business  institution,  and  while,  like 
every  other  organization  in  this  world,  it  has,  and  must  have, 
its  business  side,  its  business  cannot  be  separated  from  its 
religion.  As  Rector  of  the  Parish  my  primary  responsi- 
bility is  for  its  religious  acts,  but  I  claim  also  my  full  share 
of  responsibility  for  its  business  acts,  and  I  have  found  in 
the  Vestry  a  most  earnest  desire  that  this  whole  matter  of 
our  property  shall  be  dealt  with  not  merely  from  the  busi- 
ness point  of  view,  but  from  the  standpoint  of  religion,  of 
social  responsibility  and  of  enlightened  citizenship." 


Since  this  sermon  was  preached  many  of  the  plans  alluded 


1/ 


to  by  the  Rector  have  been  matured  and  are  now  being  carried 
out.  The  Vestry  has  appropriated  very  large  sums  of  money 
for  the  erection  of  new  buildings,  to  be  raised  by  borrowing,  or 
by  sale  of  real  estate,  for,  as  will  appear  in  the  Parish  Year  Book 
now  in  press,  the  entire  income  of  the  church  from  its  property 
of  all  kinds  during  the  twelve  months  ending  July  31,  1909,  was 
but  $766,787.34,  of  which  over  $140,000  was  paid  in  taxes  and 
water  rents  and  $308,000  in  maintenance  of  the  property ;  and  the 
balance,  which  was  wholly  spent  for  carrying  on  the  religious, 
educational  and  charitable  work  of  the  parish,  was.  in  fact,  insuf- 
ficient for  that  purpose. 

The  dwelling  houses  on  Trinity's  lands  were  not  erected  by 
the  Church,  but  have  come  into  its  possession  on  the  expiration 
of  ground  leases.  As  leases  expire,  the  question  of  the  renewal 
term  is  a  matter  of  chief  concern  to  the  lessee,  who  frequently 
prefers  to  renew,  but  is  unwilling  to  assume  the  obligation  of  a 
long  term.  In  such  cases,  lessees  who  desire  to  renew,  are  re- 
quired to  put  and  maintain  the  buildings  in  good  sanitary  con- 
dition in  full  compliance  with  the  law,  otherwise  the  Church  pays 
the  fair  value  and  takes  the  buildings  over,  subject  to  existing 
defects.  If  structurally  good,  the  Church  undertakes  to  put 
them  in  proper  repair,  and  thereafter  to  keep  them  in  as  good 
order  as  the  personal  sense  of  orderliness  of  the  occupants  will 
permit. 

Technical  violations  not  infrequently  occur  without  notice  to 
the  Church  through  the  acts  of  the  tenants,  but  are  corrected  as 
speedily  as  possible  when  disclosed.  For  instance,  buildings  ade- 
quately equipped  with  fire-escapes  when  rented  may  subsequently 
become  technical  violations  because  tenants  have  sublet  to  addi- 
tional persons  classed  as  "families."  Such  faults  are  corrected 
when  known  by  reducing  the  number  of  occupants. 

The  cost  of  repairing  buildings  is  often  very  consider- 
able, because  the  lessees  have  exhausted  the  property  beyond 
their  willingness  or  ability  to  restore  it  to  fit  condition.  Of 
course,  any  defects  which  inspection  reveals,  either  in  the  prop- 
erty which  Trinity  has  long  owned  or  has  newly  acquired,  are 
and  will  be  remedied  as  soon  as  practicable.  In  many  instances, 
however,  the  Church  removes  the  buildings  entirely,  and  it 
now  holds  many  lots  vacant,  because  conditions  prevailing  in  the 
district  do  not  justify  the  erection  of  new  dwellings  of  the  same 
class,  and  because  there  may  be  no  demand  for  a  business  build- 
ing on  a  particular  lot.  The  erection  of  the  ordinary  four  or 
five  story  tenement  on  a  single  lot  is  contrary  to  the  policy  of 
the  Church,  and  it  has  not  erected  a  building  of  that  character. 
In  considering  the  property  as  a  whole,  it  must  be  realized  that 


the  Church  is  compelled  to  deal  with  the  transitory  condition 
which  belongs  to  that  section  of  the  city,  and  that  Trinity's  prob- 
lem concerning  its  own  land  is  only  a  part  of  the  problem  relat- 
ing to  the  entire  neighborhood.  Through  improvements  made  by 
itself  as  well  as  by  encouraging  improvement  by  others,  the 
Church  is  seeking  to  aid  in  the  development  of  the  district  by 
replacing  old  buildings  with  new.  It  sells  its  lands  as  opportunity 
offers,  invariably  with  a  covenant  for  the  erection  of  modern 
business  buildings.  No  opportunity  has  been  permitted  for  the 
erection  of  the  city  tenement  house  of  ordinary  type.  The  Church 
itself,  has  improved  its  own  property  with  substantial  and  exten- 
sive buildings,  including  factories,  warehouses  and  groups  of 
model  tenements.  Several  new  buildings  are  now  nearing  com- 
pletion, and  a  scheme  of  improvement  on  a  large  scale  is  gradu- 
ally being  worked  out.  The  Church  already  has  a  debt  of  about 
two  million  of  dollars  incurred  for  this  purpose.  To  what  extent 
future  improvements  shall  include  model  tenements,  is  a  subject 
for  careful  consideration,  and  whether  it  will  be  possible  or 
desirable  to  continue  to  maintain  any  large  number  of  the  present 
dwellings  for  residence  purposes,  also  presents  a  question  which 
cannot  now  be  definitely  determined. 

Yours  very  truly, 

David  B.  Ogden, 

Chairman  Property  Committee, 

Vestry  of  Trinity  Church. 


